Democracy

Abstract

This article proposes to reflect on the different meanings of the term democracy. While recognizing that thevery concept of democracy is subject to the conflicts that its concrete exercise implies, three fundamentalsenses are distinguished: democracy as a form of government, as a mechanism for decision-making and as amoral ideal. Insofar as the idea of democracy necessarily refers to the idea of the people, we will reflect on thedifferent ways in which the people are conceptualized in recent political debates. In addition, it will be pointedout that democracy, in any of its senses, depends on a certain technical or technological support that makesit possible, from the voting systems that seek to ensure the secrecy of the vote, to the communication systemsthat should ensure access to, and reliability of, the information necessary for decision-making. In view of this,and with the help of authors such as Langdom Winner or Éric Sadin, the article also reflects on the relationsand tensions between democracy and technology.